Ask Brianna: Should I pick my first job based on my debt?
In a 2015 survey of student loan borrowers by the education nonprofit American Student Assistance, more than half of respondents said they took a higher-paying job they were less interested in so they could pay off their loans.
Federal student loan repayment programs make lower-paying work more sustainable, and some private companies help pay loan bills.
More than a third of respondents in the American Student Assistance survey said student loans affected their choice to work at a private company rather than in the public sector.
Some private companies offer student debt payments — say, $100 a month directly to the loan principal — as an employee benefit, similar to health insurance or 401(k) contributions.
A 2016 report from the Society for Human Resource Management found that 4 percent of member companies and organizations surveyed offered student loan repayment assistance.
Gradifi, an online platform that helps employers implement loan assistance programs, has signed contracts with more than 20 new companies in the past two months, says Meera Oliva, Gradifi's chief marketing officer.
Most workers currently have to pay taxes on employer student loan contributions, Oliva says, which reduces the value of the benefit.
"The fact that even private employers are feeling the pinch of not being able to attract good employees because of debt levels, that really tells us that policymakers have waited far too long to really get at the root of these problems," she says.